Sunday, June 19, 2011

Customer Purchase Decision Making Process Part 2

Another important factor we have identified in the customer purchase making process is the attitudes and dispositions they develop about your brand.

If there is a negative emotional judgment made about an aspect of your brand there are several ways you can change this to positively influence your prospects.

First is to focus on the authority figures who can influence your prospects attitude. Things such as Consumer magazines, celebrities, government and consumer advocacy groups can positively influence your prospect.

You also want to deconstruct the underlying reasons why a prospect is motivated to buy your brand and then analyze anything getting in the way of making a purchase.

You can also use the AIDA formula to help understand what psycho-emotional process your customer is going through.

AIDA stands for...

Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

Generally these stages occur in order. First capturing your prospects attention, getting them interested in what you have to offer, building desire for your product, and finally getting them to take an action.

There are other behavior models for how a consumer may move to a purchase which you should consider when evaluating your marketing.

The Think-Feel-Do model is another process for how purchase decisions are made. The interesting thing about the TFD model is that it is not linear.

Customers may feel first, do, then think. Or feel, then think, then do. Which order a prospect takes is usually dependent upon the type of purchase;

For transactions with higher risk, or areas where the prospect has less confidence, they are more likely to take a think first approach.

With areas of a low perceived risk or where the prospect holds more confidence, they are likely to follow feeling first.

For example you do not read the ingredients list and spend 5 minutes analyzing the merits of various soft drink brands. Instead you just go with what you feel like having.